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1st LD Writethru: Ecuador presidential election heads to runoff

Xinhua, February 23, 2017 Adjust font size:

Ecuador's presidential election is heading to a runoff as the leading ruling party candidate Lenin Moreno failed to garner an absolute majority in the first-round race on Feb. 19, according to results released by National Electoral Council (CNE) on Thursday.

"On April 2, there will be a runoff between the two presidential tickets Moreno-Glas and Lasso-Paez," the head of the CNE, Juan Pablo Pozo, posted on Twitter, referring to the leading candidates and their running mates.

According to results released by the CNE, with 99.5 percent of the votes counted, Moreno, the candidate of the ruling PAIS Alliance party, won 39.3 percent of the vote, while his closest contender Guillermo Lasso got 28.1 percent.

The remaining votes were divided among another six contenders.

To win in the first round and avoid a runoff, Ecuadorian law requires a candidate to win an outright majority of more than 50 percent, or get at least 40 percent of the votes with a 10-point advantage over the runner-up. Endi